2025 World Series: Dodgers Win Their Second Straight; Did They Have an Unfair Advantage?

Colin Daly ‘27

Recently, the 2025 Major League Baseball season came to an end in an iconic, winner-takes-all game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays. This marked the first time since 2019 that a World Series was so evenly matched that no champion had been crowned after the first 6 games. From the National League, the Dodgers had been the expected champions all year, having won it the previous year. From the American League, the Blue Jays were the underdogs, the team that no one expected to make it as far as they did, and they put up an incredible fight.
After a shocking win in Game 1, the Blue Jays would continue to be consistent in the series; however, after 6 games had been played, each team had taken victory in 3, requiring a game 7. In the most-watched MLB game in over 34 years, the Blue Jays hosted the Dodgers in an incredible contest. Somehow, after a full 9 innings, both teams were even at 4 runs a piece, in spite of the Blue Jays being just 2 outs away from winning it all in the inning prior. Finally, after 11 innings, a Dodgers double play ended the underdog run for the Blue Jays and won them their second straight title.
In the days after the World Series, conversations have sparked about whether the Dodgers have an unfair advantage over other teams in the league. For context, the Dodgers are the largest market team in baseball, and they had a whopping $350 million dollar payroll distributed amongst some of the biggest names in the sport. Many fans find this wealth advantage to be unfair and are calling for a salary cap to be implemented following the franchise’s second straight World Series title. Could this be recency bias among upset fans of worse teams? Or is there a legitimate problem in the hands of Major League Baseball?